<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Somebody You Loved by MageWriter</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28166448">Somebody You Loved</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/MageWriter/pseuds/MageWriter'>MageWriter</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Supergirl (TV 2015)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/F, Happy Ending, Kalex, Some angst, break-up, dear jane letter, kalex secret santa 2020, past Alex Danvers/Kelly Olsen - Freeform</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 19:01:26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>6,793</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28166448</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/MageWriter/pseuds/MageWriter</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Alex comes home to an empty apartment and a Dear Jane letter.<br/>Kara is there to be whatever Alex wants/needs her to be.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Alex Danvers/Kara Danvers</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>79</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Secret Kalex Santa 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Somebody You Loved</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/LinxDanKX/gifts">LinxDanKX</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Okay, so I wasn’t entirely certain where to go with this one. That being said, this is what I came up with it. LinxDanKX wanted hurt/comfort, some angst, Valentine’s Day, and canon divergence. I hope this pleases them.</p><p>Happy Holidays LinxDanKX!!!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Alex was truly beginning to hate Valentine’s Day. All holidays, really, at this point. They never seemed to work out the way they used to anymore.</p><p>The day in question was a month away, but she had already been preparing for it. Why wouldn’t she? She had a wonderful girlfriend, her job was her own again so she could safely take time away without fear of something interrupting any plans she had made, and she was more settled as <em>herself</em> than she had ever felt in her entire life.</p><p>Clutching the letter in her hand right now, she was beginning to doubt two of those things.</p><p>Maggie had at least broken up with her in person. Handed her ring, the key to their apartment, and her DEO clearance badge back to her at the time they had last spoken in person. Only then had Maggie left without looking back.</p><p>Sara was a one night stand and now a good friend.</p><p>Sam had been an almost maybe, but far too close to everything with Maggie and Reign to begin something beyond friendship.</p><p>Kelly had been different. They had fit so well together. Kara had even liked her from the beginning! That by itself said that Kelly had been worth pursuing. Kara never liked the people Alex dated all that much.</p><p>She hadn’t even threatened to throw Kelly into the sun.</p><p>Kara. She needed Kara right now. Alex needed someone who wasn’t going to up and leave with a…with a…the paper crumpled in her hands.</p><p>“Kara,” she croaked out, swallowing to clear the choking feeling in her throat, “Kara, please come over.”</p><p>One nice thing about having an alien with superpowers for a foster sister was that Alex didn’t need a phone to get her attention.</p><p>Within a minute, Kara was touching down on the balcony.</p><p>“Hey Alex,” Kara felt her smile falter at the sight of her favorite person looking as if she were about to fall apart. “What’s wrong?” She got Alex sitting on the couch, arm wrapped around the older woman’s shoulders. “Where’s Kelly?”</p><p>“She’s gone,” Alex got out, the question breaking her control as tears coursed down her face.</p><p>What was so wrong with her that every woman she fell in love with left?</p><p>“What? How? Did Leviathan come back?” Kara hadn’t heard anything, nor had Lena. The woman was turning herself inside out to prove that (anger induced judgment aside) she wanted to make things right. She would have said something.</p><p>“No, she’s alive, she just…left.” Alex opened her hand to reveal the mangled letter.</p><p>“What?” Kara said softly, confusion high.</p><p>Why would Kelly just leave? The couple had always appeared so happy and in-tune with each other. Kara knew Alex had been happy and very much in love. Her sister (always her sister, as she had long accepted) always had a smile on her face and was ready to gush about her girlfriend at the drop of a hat. Kelly had come across the same way.</p><p>The woman had made Alex potstickers, just for Alex! She had stared down Kara as she had said it, making it clear that the food was for Alex and no one else. She made certain that Alex ate and otherwise took care of herself. She never expected Alex to stop wanting things just to make Kelly happy or to continue their relationship.</p><p>Kara took the letter, smoothed it out, and read it.</p><p>“Is this…is this a <em>Dear Jane</em> letter?” she whispered harshly, her rage kindled. She knew the term from a conversation with Sara and Kate, but had never thought her beloved Alex would face such a thing.</p><p>“Yep,” Alex choked out. This hurt worse than Maggie leaving. It was more embarrassing than her morning after with Sara.</p><p>Why hadn’t Kelly ever mentioned the things she wrote about? They talked about pretty much everything else in their lives that they could. They didn’t fight often, but they had always worked things out when they did.</p><p>She wasn’t entirely certain where she had gone wrong this time. Alex had thought their relationship was a good mix with equal balances. She was no great cook, but she usually managed breakfast to Kelly’s dinner. She didn’t leave her socks all over the apartment (a problem Maggie had nagged at her about whenever she found one). She did the dishes, took out the trash, sorted the laundry before and after, made certain all of her weapons were in their proper places. The DEO hired a cleaning service to come in and do all the rest, both as a benefit and to keep undercover agents from returning to dust bunny infestations.</p><p>No one wanted a repeat of that one.</p><p>Alex had thought she had made certain to listen whenever Kelly talked, asking questions when she wasn’t certain or didn’t understand something. She knew from experience with Kara that she wasn’t going to understand everything or see things the way Kelly did. Their experiences were very different growing up in small-town America.</p><p>Kara read the letter again before crumpling it up into a ball it was never coming back from. She turned and tugged Alex back into her arms, holding the other woman as tightly as she dared.</p><p>“Were you really going to propose?” Kara asked into the quiet that had settled in with Alex’s tears. It was one of the main points in the letter, how Kelly wasn’t interested in getting married again.</p><p>“I was,” Alex admitted. “I didn’t want another spontaneous ‘we survived’ incident, so I was planning it for Valentine’s Day.” She scoffed. “So much for that cliché.” She shuddered. “Why didn’t she say anything about kids and not feeling ready? She encouraged me to keep trying!”</p><p>“It’s just an excuse,” it popped out before Kara really thought about it. “She just wrote down whatever it was she felt would make the most sense and free her from guilt.”</p><p>Rocking Alex gently, Kara took a moment to look around the apartment. Most of the things Kelly had brought in were gone. Not all of them, not yet, but all the things she had to have felt were the most important to be gone before Alex discovered the letter.</p><p>Why that was Kara didn’t know. Despite her job, Alex was not a violent person. The little bonsai tree Maggie had accidentally left behind and never returned for was proof of that, thriving as it was in the little corner Alex had made for it. Even when they were younger, the most damage Alex had ever done to an ex’s belongings was a smashed vase.</p><p>Kara would still swear that the vase was an accident and that the object in question had been hideous, to begin with. Breaking it had been community service. Eliza had shaken her head at them but never mentioned it to a single partner that Alex had brought home. Privately, Kara believed that Eliza agreed with her assessment of both the vase and the man who had brought it to Alex’s apartment.</p><p>“I really thought she was the one,” Alex whimpered, bringing Kara back to the present. “After everything we’ve been through, I thought this was one of the good things to have come from all of the bad.”</p><p>“We all did,” Kara agreed, “but this isn’t your fault Alex. You were upfront with everything.”</p><p>“I have to be doing something wrong.” Alex protested. “It has to be me.”</p><p>“Or the people you date don’t have the brains to see how great you are, flaws and all.” Kara shot down that line of thinking.</p><p>Alex wasn’t perfect. She made mistakes and wrong calls. She always hid the good cookies and hated sharing her favorite treats. She tended to jump to conclusions when people she cared about were in danger (or possible danger). She still drank too much sometimes when a day went FUBAR. There were many little things that she did that would annoy someone and some big ones that drove those who loved her crazy.</p><p>Above all of that was how much she cared. Alex cared so much, even when her stubbornness got in the way. She worked hard and tried her best to do the right thing. She was smart, creative, and brave.</p><p>“Come on,” Kara stood up, cradling Alex to her chest. “We’re going to have a Sister’s Night at my place and forget about this for a little bit. You’re going to stay with me until after she comes back to get the rest of her things.”</p><p>“Kara, I can’t-” Alex tried to protest, but Kara was ignoring it.</p><p>“I’ll even watch your favorite movie without complaining,” Kara told her, already estimating an extra order of potstickers.</p><p>Alex sighed, managing a small smile. “Would you pack my bag, please? I haven’t…” she looked at their…her bedroom door.</p><p>She hadn’t been able to face it yet. Even if nothing had changed, it would hurt knowing that it would before the weekend was out. She didn’t want to face a half-empty closet and open drawers again.</p><p>“I will,” Kara nodded. It would give her a chance to clean up as well, saving her sister the pain of witnessing it as she had with Maggie.</p><p>It took Kara hardly any time at all before she had Alex’s bag packed and their dinner order placed at their favorite hole-in-the-wall Chinese place. Kara already had plans to drop by Chicago and New Orleans once Alex was asleep to pick up the older woman’s favorites.</p><p>Alex could reprimand her later.</p><hr/><p>It was a week before Alex found the strength to face her apartment again. Kara and J’onn had both offered to go with her. Alex had thanked them but refused.</p><p>She wanted to face this by herself first.</p><p>The door opened soundlessly, just as it always did. The automatic lights came on to illuminate the short entryway long enough for Alex to reach over and flip on the main lights. She stood in the doorway for a moment, taking in the changes.</p><p>Two of the bookshelves and their contents were gone. Several art pieces were no longer on the walls. The kitchen, Alex knew, would be missing the small collection of pots and pans that Kelly had brought with her. Many of the little knickknacks were gone, as were the curtains from the windows.</p><p>Kelly’s desk was gone, as were her chair and the recliner she preferred when alone in the apartment. The rest of the furniture was still in place if shuffled off-center. The rugs were all gone, which hit Alex as funny for some reason.</p><p>What was the point of taking the rugs and the curtains? As they had bought them together, Alex didn’t think that Kelly would want them as reminders.</p><p>Calming herself, wiping away the tears that had leaked out, she steeled her nerves for what came next.</p><p>The hall bath and guest room were unchanged. The rooms had both clearly been searched but nothing was missing from them. Almost absently, Alex fixed the misplaced objects in the bathroom.</p><p>The guest room was meant to be a child’s room. It was why Alex had decided on this apartment in the first place. With the chaos of the past year and the original denial of her application, the room had remained a mostly unfurnished storage room. Taking a second glance, she supposed there could have been a box or two missing. Kelly had stored some of her extra books in the room, talking about finding time to get another bookshelf for the living room. They had never gotten around to it.</p><p>Spotting some of her things sitting on the ground, she supposed she would need to do so now.</p><p>The door to the master bedroom was closed. Somehow, that made it seem a much larger challenge than it ought to have been.</p><p>Alex straightened up, facing the door as she would any other foe. She could do this. She could handle the pain. She stalked towards the door, turned the knob, and shoved it open.</p><p>Sitting on the bed, holding down another letter, was the ring box containing the ring she had been planning to use on Valentine’s Day.</p><p>Everything else, the open closet door where only Alex’s clothing hung to the cracked open drawers of the dresser to the curtainless windows, faded out as her focus went to the little black box.</p><p>Why would Kelly place it there like that?</p><p>Wasn’t the first letter enough?</p><p>Wasn’t it enough that Kelly had already left?</p><p>Hadn’t she already said all there was to say? How Alex was rushing towards things too soon, wanting things and not caring what her partner wanted. How her devotion to her job and foster sister overshadowed all her other relationships. How sorry she was that she could no longer be the second choice.</p><p>Kelly had known going in that Alex and Kara were a packaged deal. The woman had known that Alex was working on getting approved for adoption. She knew, had even been involved with, Alex’s job and the insanity it dealt with.</p><p>Maybe they had never talked about marriage directly aside from their past history with the institution, but with how well they had worked together Alex had thought it was a forgone conclusion that that was where the relationship would end up. Just as she had thought, based on Kelly’s own actions and encouragement, that her now ex-girlfriend agreed on the subject of children.</p><p>Had she been blinded by her own thoughts and desires that she had missed hesitancy from Kelly?</p><p>Alex didn’t know, just as she had no clue what to do with the second letter. Was it new or had it…no. It had to be new. If it had been there since the first day, Kara would have destroyed it and never said a word about it.</p><p>Deciding to be as brave as Kara always told her she was, Alex picked up the letter and opened it.</p><p>
  <em>Dear Alex,</em>
</p><p>
  <em>     I think I have said all there is to say. The ring is beautiful, and if I were the right girl it would be perfect. I am not. Not for the life you live. I will not watch it destroy someone else I love.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>     Marrying again was never in any of my plans. Children as a concept are alright, but I can’t with you. You make everything seem as if it will all work out, but it won’t. I can’t watch you hurt yourself like that.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>     I know this hurts. For what it’s worth, I am sorry. We had a good thing while it lasted, but we simply want different things from life right now. I know you’ll be okay because you have Kara.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Good Luck with your future,</em>
</p><p>
  <em>         Kelly Olsen</em>
</p><p>She sat down on the bed, crumbling the new letter into a ball and throwing it. <em>Good luck</em>, that was all the other woman could say? Alex’s life and job were a deal-breaker, but her work with an agent of the actual bad guy of the season was okay?</p><p>She scooped up the box containing the ring and threw it against the wall for good measure.</p><p>The tears came despite her efforts to hold them back. She flipped over so she could curl up around what had been Kelly’s pillow.</p><p>It smelled of their laundry detergent, not of Kelly’s perfume.</p><p>Alex cried into it anyway.</p><hr/><p>That was how Kara and Lena Luthor found her hours later.</p><p>“oh, Alex,” Kara breathed out, approaching the bed carefully. “What happened?”</p><p>They had noticed the missing pieces around the apartment when they had come in. That there were pictures of the pair still up on the fridge was almost adding insult to injury. Hesitantly, Lena had removed them, tucking them away in the odds-and-ends drawer among rubber bands and extra takeaway utensils. She had then followed Kara to the bedroom.</p><p>Now, she watched as her best friend (they were slowly getting there, but that was what Kara was) tried to get her sister’s attention. Alex shifted, exchanging the much-mangled pillow for Kara.</p><p>“She left another letter with the ring,” Alex murmured, just loud enough for Lena to catch it.</p><p>Having been the recipient of one of <em>those</em> letters, Lena knew just how much hurt could be packed into seemingly innocent words. While Kara tended to Alex, Lena picked up the ring box and the crumpled up letter. She stayed silent, not knowing if Alex would want her poor offerings of comfort or not.</p><p>“She took everything with her,” Alex continued, “like she was never even here.”</p><p>“It’ll be okay,” Kara tugged Alex further into her hold. “It’ll be okay.”</p><p>Watching them now, Lena felt her heart hurt for them. She set the letter and ring box down, getting Kara’s attention just long enough to let her know she was leaving. The pair didn’t need her here right now.</p><p>Kara nodded, mouthing ‘thank you’ to her. Lena nodded back. It had meant a lot that Kara had asked her to come to check on Alex with her, possibly get the older woman to come out with them to do something silly.</p><p>Going back out towards the front door, Lena detoured thru the kitchen to get the photos. If Kelly wanted to be erased from their lives, then Lena could make that happen. Alex must not have seen them before and the CEO was determined she never would.</p><p>At least if she had to lose any hope of Kara being hers, it was to Alex. It was a loss that Lena could handle.</p><p>If the two ever got over themselves and figured it out.</p><p>She might just need to help them with that.</p><hr/><p>“I chased Lena out, didn’t I?” Alex said later once her tears had stopped. “Did this interrupt your plans with her?”</p><p>“No, to both those questions,” Kara replied. They were now curled up together in the bed, Alex tucked against her in a way that simply felt right. “She was hesitant to come to begin with, and she didn’t want to upset whatever balance your friendship is currently in. She did want to make certain you were okay.”</p><p>“Do you want to read the letter?”</p><p>“Does it say anything much different than the first?”</p><p>“Not really, it’s shorter.” Alex’s eyes hurt from crying. She just wanted to lay there and let Kara comfort her, so she did. She could be a functioning adult in the morning.</p><p>“Then I don’t need to read it to know that it’s just more excuses she came up with the assuage her guilt over hurting you.” Kelly better feel guilty. Kara was very tempted to hunt her down and see if she could really throw a human into the sun.</p><p>She had hurt Alex.</p><p>No one was allowed to hurt Alex.</p><p>“Apparently she found the ring and that’s what made her decide to leave,” Alex stated a fact they both already knew.</p><p>Kara thought of the bracelets she had designed as a teenager before she understood that Alex was not her betrothed. She was glad that Alex had never seen them. She didn’t even think that Alex was aware of her thoughts or the crush she still carried for her. The talk with Eliza and Jerimiah had been embarrassing enough.</p><p>“That’s her choice,” Kara said firmly. “It’s a stupid choice, but it’s the one she made.”</p><p>Alex snorted. “At this rate, the only one who even wants me around forever is you.” Her relationship with her sister had been pointed out as a ‘flaw’ by several of her partners. Maggie had even joked once that it was one of the things that had tipped her off on Supergirl’s secret identity.</p><p>“Of course I want you around forever,” Kara said softly. “I love you.” In so many different ways.</p><p>“Maybe I should just date you then.” Alex meant it…she wasn’t entirely certain how she meant it.</p><p>Kara flinched. “Please don’t joke about that.”</p><p>Alex pulled away just enough that she could look up at the woman holding her. “You don’t need to sound so insulted.”</p><p>“I’m not!” Kara replied. “But it has already been explained to me that that is <em>not</em> how things work on Earth.” She moved to let Alex go.</p><p>Alex stopped her, clutching onto Kara’s shirt. “I’m a little lost, but what are you talking about?” Alex knew a little bit about how matches worked on Krypton. What had caused Kara’s confusion? Whatever it was, it was most likely Clark’s fault.</p><p>Kara sighed. “Can we talk about it later?” Much later, like maybe never if she could sufficiently distract Alex from thinking about it.</p><p>“No, I want to know why my comment made you flinch.”</p><p>“Okay, just…please don’t laugh at me?” Jeremiah had laughed at her confusion and, despite his intention to make lite of it, it had hurt deeply.</p><p>“I won’t,” Alex promised solemnly. Maybe later they could laugh over it together, but right now she would refrain.</p><p>“Adoption wasn’t really practiced on Krypton,” Kara began. “When a person joined another family, it was through a marriage bond. If those involved were young, it was with a betrothal.”</p><p>“So you thought we were engaged when you first came to live with us.” Alex understood that. It wasn’t something to laugh at. As a teenager, upset at having a person she saw as an interloper to her life, she would likely have laughed in Kara’s face and used it to torment her for misunderstanding something most people had a general idea of.</p><p>“Yes, Eliza and Jeremiah corrected me.” Kara looked away. “It..” she was really going to do this, wasn’t she? “It didn’t stop me from loving you, but I accepted that we were never going to be more than sisters.” She still got to love Alex, even if it wasn’t the way she wanted.</p><p>“Huh…” well, that explained a lot. As antagonistic as their relationship had begun, it had mellowed and turned into what it was over the years. Kara always had been eager to please her over their parents. She had felt more guilt over being the cause of Alex’s pain than possibly exposing herself.</p><p>Kara wilted. She shouldn’t have said anything. She should have just laughed it off and agreed that such a thing was silly.</p><p>“Hey,” Alex got her attention, “I’m not saying no, okay?”</p><p>“What?” Kara blinked in confusion.</p><p>“I’m saying let me think about it,” Alex explained. “Let me think about it, and us and this break up with Kelly.”</p><p>“Okay?” Kara was still confused, but Alex wasn’t sending her away so she was going to go with it.</p><p>“Okay,” Alex tugged her…sister didn’t seem like the correct term right now. She tugged her alien closer to her. “Right now, I need cuddles. So that’s what we’re going to do.”</p><p>“Okay,” Kara let herself be pulled towards Alex. She could do cuddles.</p><hr/><p>­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Alex was freaking out.</p><p>Why had she thought this was the best way to figure things out?</p><p>She had requested a short leave of absence in order to sort the changes in her life. J’onn had stepped in to cover for her being gone, and Alex suspected that Lena had done something to ensure that the two weeks (at full pay) were granted without conditions. She had managed to tell Kara in person that she was going <em>and that she would be back</em>.</p><p>Responsibilities taken care of, Alex had backed a small bag, gotten on her bike, and headed out of National City.</p><p>Now, she was holed up in a small cabin with a view that was much like Midvale near the beach. It was her quiet spot, a private location she had purchased years ago. She had never brought anyone here, not even Kara.</p><p>Alone with just her thoughts and memories, Alex was beginning to think this had been a bad idea.</p><p>Surfing and running only took up so much brain space, and there wasn’t much surfing to be done in January.</p><p>Everything still hurt, but the tears had stopped.</p><p>The cause of her current panic sat before her on the bed that dominated one corner of the small space. The journals themselves were innocent enough, but what they now held in their pages was both enlightening and damning. Alex hadn’t thought that she would fill all three books, or that the information would be…what it was.</p><p>She began by writing down everything she could remember about her past relationships (orange, stolen from Kara’s hoard), both the good and the bad. When deciding on this course of action, she thought it fitting that the rusty orange of the cover looked very much like dried blood in the right light. Resting on the navy comforter, it looked like an old wound.</p><p>In the black notebook (because she liked black, it was simple and comfortable) she had written down as much of her relationship with Kara that she could think of as being relevant to the current topic. Every last page was filled, front and back, with the tiny, cramped writing Alex normally reserved for margin notes. There was a noticeable shift from about the seventh page in, short-hand working its way in as the pages filled.</p><p>Between the two rested the blue notebook, filled with comparisons from the first two. It was this one that was causing the majority of her current panic. Alex debated burning all three notebooks and disappearing into the ether, except that would be running away and she couldn’t abandon Kara.</p><p>She had promised.</p><p>“Mom is going to kill me,” she breathed out, accepting that outcome.</p><p>The compiled evidence made it clear that aside from sex and kissing, her relationship with Kara differed little from her romantic entanglements with others.</p><p>Now, the real question was if she wanted to add those elements and the complications that came with them to their relationship.</p><p>Was she physically and sexually attracted to the woman she had called her sister for the last fifteen years?</p><hr/><p>Lena watched as her best friend paced in front of her desk. Kara had been agitated since the night in Alex’s apartment. She had finally gotten the reason why from Kara in the last thirty minutes.</p><p>Well, at least she had been right.</p><p>“Kara, Alex isn’t an idiot.” She leaned back in her chair to watch Kara’s reaction.</p><p>“What?” Kara stopped her pacing to look at her best friend.</p><p>“She isn’t going to abandon you even if, by some strange event, she doesn’t return your feelings,” Lena explained slowly. Honestly, it wasn’t as if the two of them together was that strange.</p><p>“I don’t expect her to return my feelings,” Kara stated quietly, honestly. “I just want her in my life.”</p><p>It would have been so much easier if Alex was <em>just</em> her sister. If all of the romantic feelings could be targeted towards someone else. Kara had thought Mon-El had come close, but that was an avoided train wreck. Looking at the woman in front of her, part of Kara wished she could return her friend’s feelings.</p><p>Lena was an easy person to love, and Kara did love her, but not that way.</p><p>It was hard to love someone else when you had been in love with one person since you were fifteen years old.</p><p>“I know,” considering her own feelings, Lena did know. It didn’t make understanding it any easier, but better to have a friend than nothing. She took a breath, using the moment to settle her thoughts.</p><p>“Tell me what you would do on a date with Alex, one where you both knew it was a date.”</p><p>Kara opened her mouth to refute the statement, not wanting to build her hopes up or hurt Lena. The look on the CEO’s face made her close it and swallow the words. She sighed and nodded, closing her eyes to bring up one of the many daydreams she had had since she was fifteen.</p><p>“A movie at a drive-in because Alex loves those, as rare as they are now. We’d have a picnic and,” she blushed, unable to voice the thought of making out with the older woman. “Kissing,” she finally managed to get out, “there would be kissing and cuddles and hand-holding.”</p><p>Not for the first time, Lena wondered just what decade the Kryptonians had gotten their information about Earth from. It was cute if a little outdated.</p><p>Then again, what did she know? The date sounded wonderful, and much more enjoyable than many Lena herself had been subjected to.</p><p>“I think that sounds sweet, and very much like you,” Lena spoke softly, a part of her wishing that it was her in this hypothetical. “Would it end with that?”</p><p>Kara shook her head. “I would take her flying, or stargazing before we went home.”</p><p>Lena, more for her own self-preservation, did not ask what would happen after that. Kara might just explode if she did.</p><p>Before they could continue the conversation, Kara’s phone went off. Lena’s followed a moment later.</p><p>“Go get them, Supergirl,” she nodded to her open balcony door. “Be safe. Alex will kill you if you do something stupid to get yourself killed while she’s gone.”</p><p>Kara wrapped the other woman in a hug. “I will, and thank you.”</p><p>She was gone before Lena could ask what Kara was thanking her for.</p><hr/><p>“Alex! You’re back!”</p><p>Alex chuckled as she wrapped her arms around her excited alien. “Yeah, I am.” She squeezed Kara as hard as she could. “I missed you.”</p><p>“I missed you too.” Kara loosened her hold just enough that she could look Alex over. “Are you feeling better?”</p><p>“I am actually,” she replied after a moment of thought. “Thanks for taking care of my place while I was gone.”</p><p>She had stopped by her apartment just long enough to drop her things off and start a load of laundry. She had taken in the new bookshelves, curtains, and area rugs filling the empty spaces in her apartment with surprised appreciation.</p><p>All traces of Kelly were gone as if she had never been there. Part of her still hurt at the realization, but mostly she was relieved at having been spared the task of doing it herself.</p><p>“I thought it would help,” Kara admitted shyly.</p><p>“It did,” Alex assured her. “Remind me to thank Lena, but we really need to talk to her about spending limits.” The new recliner was at least two weeks’ worth of pay if the quality of the leather was anything to go by.</p><p>Kara snorted. “I told her you would know, and when I mentioned it she just sort of…blinked at me as if she didn’t understand what I was saying.”</p><p>Alex shook her head. Well, at least if the woman was spending far too much on furniture then she wasn’t using said money to try and take over the world.</p><p>“I don’t want to talk about Lena right now.”</p><p>“Okay, what do you want to talk about?” Kara tried to keep her voice even, but she knew it wavered.</p><p>“This,” she reached up and dragged Kara’s face to hers, kissing the blonde for the first time.</p><p>Kara squeaked but fell into the kiss. It was everything she had ever imagined it to be and more.</p><p>A wolf-whistle broke the moment and both women turned to glare at where it came from. The agent gulped and backed up several steps.</p><p>“Director, it’s good to have you back.” J’onn’s timely arrival saved the other agent and sent the others watching their director kissing Supergirl back to work.</p><p>“J’onn, it’s good to be back,” Alex reddened, having meant to take Kara to her office before doing anything but…well…so be it. She had never intended to hide it anyway.</p><p>The man smiled at them, gentle in that way he tended to be when it was the two young women who had come to be daughters of his heart. “Next time, I would suggest not giving the people you work with gossip material.” He patted both their shoulders and strode away.</p><p>He had money to collect, and a pair of women to buy drinks.</p><p>Watching him walk away, Kara started giggling. She tugged Alex towards the woman’s office. “We should talk.”</p><p>Alex nodded. “We should, but I want to take you out after.”</p><p>Kara paused. “Like a date?”</p><p>“Yes, a date.” Alex stiffened her spine and walked with purpose to her office. “A real date, one that ends with kissing and cuddling.”</p><p>Kara beamed at her. “I would like that. I would like that very much.”</p><hr/><p>A YEAR LATER</p><p>Alex was rushing around their shared apartment, nearly tripping over one of their overabundance of throw pillows that had begun taking over their living room. She scowled at it and then at the lounging ravenette laughing at her from one of the barstools.</p><p>“You could help!”</p><p>“And miss out on seeing you act like a teenager before asking out the pretty girl?” Lena shook her head, a wide smile on her face. “I’m fine here.”</p><p>“Why are you even here?” Alex asked her. “Shouldn’t you be getting ready for your own date?”</p><p>Lena waved the comment aside. “Sam is meeting me after her patrol is over, and we’re having a quiet night in.” She took in Alex’s frazzled appearance. “Honestly, you act as if you expect Kara to say no.”</p><p>“Considering how my last two attempts at this ended, do you blame me?” Alex shot back.</p><p>Lena rolled her eyes. “As far as Kara’s concerned, you asking is just a formality at this point. You two are practically married as it is.”</p><p>“Speaking of my girlfriend, shouldn’t you be busy bothering her right now? Or trying to blow up a lab somewhere?”</p><p>“That was entirely my brother’s fault, and Kara is busy setting up her surprise for you.”</p><p>Alex eyed her warily. “You would warn me if Kara was going to propose as well, right?”</p><p>“As amusing as such a situation would be if I didn’t, yes I would.” Lena finished her coffee and set her cup aside. “You left the box containing the bracelets in your bedside table in the lead-lined box we built for this exact purpose. Now, would you please get dressed before you cause us both to be late?”</p><p>“Not even going to ask,” Alex muttered, going to retrieve the box from the place she had last moved it to.</p><p>Kara was always curious, and putting something inside a lead-lined container was just asking for her to try and get into it. Alex had been moving it around the apartment constantly for the last three months. She wanted to ask on their one year anniversary.</p><p>Coincidentally, it lined up with Valentine’s Day.</p><p>It was hard to believe sometimes that it had been a year. It felt both more and less than that. Looking at the bracelets the box contained, it felt like it was time.</p><p>Setting them aside, Alex quickly got dressed in the clothes Kara had asked her to wear. Dark wash jeans, her favorite red sweater with the tiny El crest embroidered on the collar, the silly pink/white/red heart socks bought for just this occasion, and her seldom worn sneakers. With her leather jacket tossed over it, hair styled to keep it out of the way, she looked rather dashing (if she said so herself).</p><p>“Alright James Dean, that’s enough posturing.”</p><p>“I’m surprised you know that reference, didn’t you grow up under a rock?” Alex teased the other woman.</p><p>“Funny,” Lena deadpanned. “Is Kara picking you up or-” a knock interrupted her.</p><p>Alex scooped up the box and slid it into the inside pocket. Kara had said she was going to pick her up as they were flying to wherever it was Kara had planned their date. Her girlfriend knocking was just something they did, a sign to mark the beginning of a romantic evening.</p><p>“Hey,” her smile dropped at the sight of the woman on the other side of the door. “Kelly.”</p><p>“Hi Alex,” Kelly said, taking in Alex’s appearance.</p><p>Alex stepped back, stunned to see her ex-girlfriend. “Wha-,” she cleared her throat, “what are you doing here?”</p><p>“That’s an excellent question,” Lena had pulled the door the rest of the way open so she could glare at the other woman.</p><p>She had not conceded the battle for Kara’s heart, rebuilt friendships, and begun her own relationship with a dear friend turned lover just to see a train wreck happen now.</p><p>“I just want to talk,” Kelly said calmly. If she was surprised to see Lena in Alex’s apartment, she didn’t show it. “We left things-”</p><p>“You left,” Alex interrupted her. “You left with nothing but a couple of bullshit letters saying why. You stripped the apartment of everything you wanted, never saying a word to me in person. No one’s heard from you in over a year.” She couldn’t believe this.</p><p>“I’m sorry,” Kelly replied when Alex stopped speaking. “I know how pitiful that sounds, but I <em>am</em> sorry for hurting you, Alex.”</p><p>“Fine, you’re sorry.” Alex acknowledge. “I have nothing to say to you.” And, she found as she faced the woman who had walked out on her, that was true.</p><p>“Your wife <em>is</em> waiting for you,” Lena commented, barely containing her vicious smile at the look on Kelly’s face.</p><p>Kelly paled as what Lena said registered. “You’re married?” Well, the other woman certainly hadn’t wasted much time in finding someone else. She’d known Alex was prone to jumping into things, but she hadn’t thought…</p><p>“It’s a recent development,” Alex replied.</p><p>Kelly glanced down, obviously searching for a ring. “How recent?”</p><p>“A few weeks,” Kara brushed past Kelly, coming from seemingly nowhere. She kissed Alex’s cheek, taking her girlfriend’s hand as she did so. “Are you ready <em>Zhao</em>?”</p><p>She had no idea what the two of them were doing, but Kara was more than willing to play along. Kelly had had her chance. Alex was hers now.</p><p>“Yes, we were just waiting for Lena’s driver to show up.” Alex tangled their fingers together. “Were you able to set everything up as you wanted?”</p><p>“I was; Eliza helped.” Kara turned to look at Kelly. “Was there something you wanted?”</p><p>Kelly opened her mouth, closed it, then shook her head. “No, I suppose not.” She swallowed. “Congratulations.” She spun on her heel and walked away. Alex would just have to be another regret.</p><p>Once they were certain she was gone, Lena lost her battle with composure.</p><p>“How dare she!” She glowered after the woman.</p><p>“It’s fine,” Alex said softly, eyes full of Kara. “She didn’t ruin tonight.”</p><p>“Of course not,” Kara agreed.  “Although, what possessed you to tell her we were married?” She shot a look at her best friend.</p><p>Lena snorted. “Please, no one ever questions it when it comes to you.”</p><p>“She’s right,” Alex turned Kara’s attention back to her. “Kara Zor-El, I love you. Will you-”</p><p>“Yes!” Kara blurted out before Alex could finish. “Yes,” she said with more calm, “Alex Danvers, I will marry you.” Her eyes widened. “Oh, your ring is with the food.”</p><p>“You…you got me a ring?”</p><p>Lena took that as her cue to leave them alone before Alex could recall their earlier discussion. She doubted the two even noticed her departure.</p><p>“I did,” Kara said softly, “humans exchange rings, so I thought…”</p><p>“No, no, it’s fine,” Alex shook her head, reaching inside her jacket for the box. “Looks like we both had the same idea.” She opened the box to reveal the matching bonding bracelets she had spent the last two months working on to make them perfect.</p><p>She would get Lena back later. Much later, she thought, as Kara was kissing her now and that was more important.</p><p>“They’re <em>dhoia</em>, beautiful,” she translated quickly. The wide, flat metal bands were inscribed with her crest. A single, flat chip of tiger’s eye rested on one side with a similar chip of veined turquoise on the other. “Our stones.”</p><p>“Yea,” Alex didn’t know why, but they had always been drawn to those particular gemstones. She thought it fitting that they should be part of something so important rather than chose something with more flash.</p><p>“It’s perfect.” Kara kissed her again, easily slipping the bracelet meant for her on before doing the same with Alex’s.</p><p>“Shall we go tell mom?” Alex asked, not certain what they needed to do next.</p><p>“We should get your ring first, and food.”</p><p>Alex laughed. “Okay.” She kissed Kara again just because she could.</p><p>Nothing else mattered at this moment but them. Them, in love, on the day dedicated to celebrating it.</p><p>As it should be.</p><hr/><p>THE END</p><p>I hope you enjoyed this LinxDanKX. Happy Holidays!</p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>